Lord: Sequence Master

After spending several days in Blue Whale Royal City, Rosen decisively sold his property in Sea Dragon City and purchased a new home in the royal city. The capital's advantages in all aspects far exceeded those of smaller cities.

Once settled in the royal city, Rosen split his noble and hunter identities into two separate personas.

As Rosen Howard, he no longer concealed his status as a Divine Domain Lord. Along with his inherited baronet title, he now held a non-hereditary countship.

The explanation for this new title? It was conveniently attributed to the mysterious disappearance of Rosen's parents, who had apparently earned the title before their untimely demise.

With a countship, it became reasonable for him to have developed his Divine Domain in advance. Though the majority of his current citizens were drawn from the spirit realms, the future development of his domain's population couldn't solely rely on spirit realm inhabitants. While a small number of individuals could be transformed using extraordinary residences, the bulk of the population would eventually have to be recruited from the real world.

Since moving to the royal city, Rosen frequently visited other nobles and attended various social gatherings. Gradually, word spread within the aristocratic circle about a young, Sequence 8 count, who had taken up residence in the royal city.

With a noble title like his, Rosen would inevitably reach Sequence 6 even if he did nothing. Though not at the top echelons of Blue Whale Kingdom, he would be a solid middle-tier aristocrat.

Many lesser nobles were eager to befriend him, and Rosen skillfully integrated into the aristocratic circle, finally having the appearance of a true noble.

While Rosen's real identity kept him busy with noble duties, his self-portrait doppelganger operated under the identity of Lynn Wells, a rising star in the Hunter's Guild.

Lynn Wells, a Sequence 8 pet hunter with the combat prowess to challenge Sequence 7, was gaining fame as a talented hunter. His background was modest, with connections to Rosen Howard since they had left the Blazing Shadow Duchy at the same time, though their friendship wasn't particularly deep.

Among the nobility, Lynn remained relatively unknown, but within the Hunter's Guild, his name was rapidly becoming well-known due to his impressive combat skills, which he displayed during repeated expeditions into spirit realms.

By splitting himself into these two personas, Rosen thrived in both the aristocratic and hunter worlds.

Initially, Rosen had been concerned that his Actor's Mask wouldn't be able to deceive the high-level extraordinary figures of Sea Dragon City. However, with the guidance of Gray Mouse, Rosen successfully enhanced the mask's disguise ability.

While wearing the Actor's Mask on his real body might allow high-level extraordinaries to see through the disguise, the mask on the self-portrait doppelganger created a perfect cover, making it nearly impossible for even high-level figures to detect the ruse.

Moreover, Lynn Wells had always openly acknowledged his talent for disguise and makeup, so even if anyone noticed the traces of a disguise, they would simply assume that Lynn was concealing his true identity and wouldn't connect him to Rosen Howard.

Though Rosen now lived as two people in daily life, his training remained closely intertwined.

The real Rosen spent his days painting and his nights devouring nightmares, constantly strengthening his spiritual energy. His doppelganger, meanwhile, was frequently entering spirit realms and hunting, with each kill accelerating his growth due to his hunting divinity. This dual-pronged approach increased Rosen's growth speed to five times faster than a normal Sequence 8.

Two months later, Rosen's spiritual energy had increased from 19 to 20 points.

At this point, Rosen realized he needed to shift his focus to mastering his skills.

Why now? Because the best way to quickly improve skill proficiency was through private instruction.

However, when receiving training from private instructors, it would be difficult to hide the true power of his skills from their discerning eyes. If his spiritual energy grew beyond 20 points—the maximum for a Sequence 8 hunter—his skill usage would no longer match the capabilities of someone at his level.

Thus, on the second day after reaching 20 points, Rosen hired several private tutors.

Skills such as Shadowstep, Deathblow, and Enhanced Senses were on the verge of reaching Level 3. Although he could theoretically break through on his own, Rosen preferred to bring in experts.

These tutors might only be Sequence 7, but they had spent decades or even centuries mastering the intricacies of hunter abilities, often surpassing even Sequence 4 hunters in their knowledge of skills below Sequence 7.

Each instructor worked together to design the best evolution path for Rosen's abilities.

For Shadowstep, they recommended absorbing certain shadow-elemental spirit crystals, which would be the simplest method for achieving Level 3.

However, that wasn't the best approach. Doing so would only result in a normal Shadowstep.

If Rosen chose to incorporate shadow-aligned extraordinary essence—especially from shadow creatures like the Dimensional Cat—and combined it with rare shadow treasures, the evolution of Shadowstep could lead to much stronger abilities.

For example, regular Shadowstep might evolve into Dimensional Shadowstep, a fusion of shadow and space abilities.

Of course, Shadowstep wouldn't reach its full potential until Level 4, but upgrading from Level 2 to Level 3 would lay the foundation for the future.

To achieve this, Rosen invested in extraordinarily expensive materials, purchasing a Dimensional Cat's extraordinary essence from the Crimson Shadow Principality.

Had he known this earlier, he would have obtained some Dimensional Cat essence when he left the principality.

After receiving the essence, Rosen used his Gluttony ability to digest it. He then merged the essence with shadow-elemental spirit crystals, channeling the resulting energy into his hunter essence, successfully raising Shadowstep to Level 3.

[Shadowstep Level 3: Allows the user to merge with nearby shadows for high-speed movement, enabling shadow teleportation. Damage taken while in the shadow state is greatly reduced, and attacks made from the shadow state will inflict additional shadow damage.]

[Enhanced Feature: Dimensional Concealment—Significantly increases the user's ability to hide, with a certain chance to blend into dimensional space.]

Rosen opted to enhance his existing trait rather than acquire a new one.

He now understood that enhancing a trait was more valuable than acquiring new ones.

Only those who couldn't see the path ahead would seek to diversify their skills with new traits.

However, there was a limit to how far traits could be enhanced. Once a trait was pushed to its extreme, it would be time to seek new traits. Alternatively, if an initial trait lacked growth potential, acquiring a new one and then focusing on enhancing it would also be a viable strategy.

Skill growth wasn't a linear path—to stand out, one had to forge their own route.

(End of Chapter)